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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28073748">Taking her home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut'>ChocoNut</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Modern JB love [66]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire &amp; Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Advent Calendar 2020, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Day 15, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Jealous Jaime Lannister, Roommates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:54:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,531</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28073748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocoNut/pseuds/ChocoNut</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Brienne starts dating Renly, her irate roommate discovers that it bothers him more than he can handle.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Modern JB love [66]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557871</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Taking her home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy 15th of December!<br/>Here's my humble contribution for Day 15 of the JBO Advent Calendar 2020. Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He’s too short for you!”</p><p>Four pairs of eyes zero in on Jaime, wordlessly berating him as if he’s uttered the gravest insult anyone can hurl at a fellow human.</p><p>“Height doesn’t matter as long as the hearts consent,” Tyrion grits his teeth and points out, edging him back over the line he’s trying to breach. “If Brienne likes Renly and he reciprocates, who are we to comment on their choices?”</p><p>“I’m her friend,” Jaime butts in, grinding his teeth in competition as disapproval begins to bubble away inside him. “I can offer her an opinion on what, according to me, will or won’t suit her.”</p><p>“You think Renly’s too pretty for me?” Brienne demands, hands on her hips, challenging him to one of those arguments she relishes engaging in with him.</p><p>“You got me wrong. I’m only saying that—”</p><p>“Ignore him, Brienne.” Tyrion slides off his stool, beckons to her to do the same. “Look, Renly has eyes only for you.” Jaime immediately follows their gaze to the dance floor, only to note that his all-knowing brother, as always, is right.</p><p>“He’s coming here,” Sansa chirps in excitement. “Brienne, brace yourself—”</p><p>Before she can finish, the pretty boy is there, mingling with them, all set to impress the ladies with his made-up grace and make-believe politeness. Unleashing his fake charm upon Brienne, he gives her a smile he thinks will melt down any woman it strikes and holds out his hand like he’s some gallant medieval lord and she, the lady he’s trying to woo. “Care to dance with me?”</p><p>Everyone grows quiet, waits with bated breath, and for a while, the music around is the only sound in the air.</p><p>“Sure,” Brienne happily agrees, then prances away with Renly to disappear into the crowd, leaving Jaime with a sour taste in his mouth and the burning sensation in his chest flaring up.</p><p>“Jealous?”</p><p>Jaime tears his eyes off the dancing couple to face the cheeky grin his brother chooses to attack him with. “Absolutely not.”</p><p>“Oh, you are,” Bronn whispers from his other side. “You can’t bear the fact that she crushes on him like a schoolgirl, that—” he takes a moment to take in the pair who’re now gyrating to the music, too close to each other for comfort “—that he might kiss her once this dance ends—”</p><p>“Brienne’s not the type to throw herself on a stranger on their first meeting—”</p><p>“Ask her out before it’s too late, Jaime—”</p><p>“Why would I? She’s just a friend—”</p><p>“—you can’t stand seeing in someone else’s arms,” Sansa deduces, reading him sort-of correctly.</p><p>“I just think she can do better,” Jaime shrugs her off. </p><p>“Better?” His brother’s keen eyes begin gouging out the non-existent secrets from his. “Like <em> you</em>?”   </p><p>“No!”</p><p>“What if she ends up spending the night with him?” Bronn takes over from where Tyrion and Sansa have left off. “What if—” </p><p>He holds back when they notice Brienne heading back towards them.  </p><p>Sansa’s curiosity gushes out the moment she joins them. “So?”</p><p>Brienne takes a moment to answer. “It was just a dance.” </p><p>But Jaime’s no idiot to miss the sickening sight that she’s all butterflies-in-the-stomach for her crush—the way she’s breathing, the deepening blush on her cheeks, they’re all an evidence to it. And his heart doesn’t agree with it. “Any plans for tonight with him, wench?”</p><p>“Not tonight—” the crimson on her face deepens “—I might see him again, though.”</p><p>“See—” Jaime challenges the men to refute him “—I told you she’s not that type to—” he trails away, not wanting to voice the rest.</p><p>Brienne regards the three of them suspiciously. “Am I missing something here?”</p><p>“I was just telling them that you and Renly are as bad a match as bad can ever be. And that—” he cockily takes a gulp of his beer “—no matter who you dance with, I’m the one who gets to take you home.”</p><p>Her fingers flutter around her glass. “Why?”</p><p>“Because we’re roommates,” Jaime states triumphantly.</p><p>+++++</p><p>“Will you stop tapping the table, Jaime?”</p><p>Jaime looks up into his brother’s irritated eyes. “Sorry.” He keeps away from it, but it’s barely a minute and he starts again.</p><p>“If it bothers you this much you should’ve told her how you feel about her.”</p><p>“I feel no more than a good friend would—”</p><p>Bronn bursts into laughter, spraying the table with a shower of his drink. “Sorry,” he snorts, drawing out a tissue to wipe away the mess. “A <em> good friend</em>, dude? A good friend would encourage her to get on with her love life, not pace around like a wounded lion whenever she’s out with the man—”</p><p>“—who’s no good for her,” Jaime barks back. One dance, he’d thought it would be, but now that it’s beginning to stretch out into numerous endless phone calls and a second date that’s taking forever to end, he’s starting to think his assumption that they’d break it off before even the first kiss might, well, end up as just that—his assumption. “Tonight she’s going to realize it,” he hopes, eyes darting to the entrance as if she might turn up for their Saturday evening get-together any minute. “And when she does, she’ll be bouncing back to normal—”</p><p>The door opens, and much to his relief, she enters, her much looked-forward-to arrival soothing down his racing heart.</p><p>“See,” he gloats, putting on a pretend-calm to smother away the emerging tremors in his voice. “I told you she and Renly won’t get along for long.”</p><p>Sansa can barely wait for her to come over and settle down. “How did it go?” </p><p>“More than well,” Brienne gushes, and Jaime can feel the <em> tapping </em> in his chest again.</p><p>“Did you kiss?”</p><p>“Not yet.” But the wench is blushing hard, as if she’s done it a countless times in her dreams. “Maybe the next time.”</p><p>
  <em> If there is a next time. </em>
</p><p>“Next time might end differently, but tonight, you’re mine, Brienne,” Jaime blurts out, the alcohol getting to him before he can assess his words. “You're coming home with me.”</p><p>His roommate gives him an odd look. “What does that mean?”</p><p>“I—I mean—” he stutters, realizing the implication of his casual remark. “Being your roommate, as always, I get to take you home,” he corrects his course, bringing the discussion back on track.</p><p>+++++</p><p>She twirls around, albeit a bit awkwardly. “How do I look?”</p><p>“Too good for the man you’re trying to dress up for.” Jaime takes in the midnight blue fabric hugging her curves, bringing out the ones he’s never imagined would be this shapely. “What do you see in him, wench?”</p><p>“Unlike the others I’ve dated he doesn’t think I’m ugly.” Brienne turns around for him to zip her up. “He doesn’t look at me like I’m some strange being from outer space—”</p><p>“The men you’ve dated aren’t the standard,” he whispers, dragging the zip inch by inch, as slowly as he can, wanting to prolong this for—<em> forever </em>. “There might be others who—” he exhales the rest, lets his fingers brush her smooth back. “Have you kissed him, Brienne?”</p><p>He can hear her sharp intake of air. “Once.”</p><p>More than the mad desire to torture Renly, he’s overcome by an urge to pin her to the wall and do better than this obnoxious pretty boy who’s getting closer to his target by the day. “How was it?”</p><p>Her back tenses, then eases as she sighs. “Good.”</p><p>“Good, huh?” He lets his free hand skim over her arm, his fingertips lazily kissing her skin. “You really feel so? You think he’s the best you can get, that he—”</p><p>The doorbell chimes, bringing their magical moment of privacy and this unexpected spur of intimacy to an end.</p><p>“There he is,” she breathes, straightening as he finishes up with the rest of the zipper.</p><p>“Hey, Brienne,” Jaime calls, just as she’s about to open the door. “You might be spending countless romantic hours with him, but at the end of the day, I’m the one you're going to come home to.” When she goes still, her fingers tightening around the doorknob as the knot in his stomach tightens, he adds, “You live here, obviously, so—” </p><p>“Of course.” She tosses him a frown, lips twitching at what she can see—his cocky smugness and overconfidence, what lies beneath that cover, safely out of her reach, tucked deep into his heart. His crossed fingers buried in the confines of his pocket, a slim thread of hope is all he’s left with when words and courage fail him yet again. “As always, this is all about <em> you </em> and your petty ill-feelings towards my boyfriend,” she rambles on, “the childish sense of victory you enjoy whenever I return home from a date. And here I was, thinking for a few seconds that—” </p><p>“What?” he intercepts her. “What were you thinking—”</p><p>“Nothing,” she blandly cuts him off. “I’m with Renly now. That’s all that matters.”  </p><p>Before he can come clean, she invites her date in. Before he can stop her, she’s gone, leaving him to his thoughts, his aching heart, with remorse and regret and the realization that it is, perhaps, too late now.</p><p>+++++</p><p>“You think they’re gonna do it tonight?” Sansa wonders aloud, beaming at the happy couple dancing the night away.</p><p>“New Year’s eve isn’t a bad time to take the next step,” Bronn approves. “Given that our friend here isn’t interested in her—”</p><p>“You’re right. I’m not,” Jaime asserts, downing another gulp of whisky in the hope that it might douse away the fire raging inside him.</p><p>“Is that why you’re glaring at Renly as if you’d like nothing more than to get your fingers to his throat?” Tyrion tugs at his arm, seeking his full attention. “You do know they’ve been going out for a while, that tonight might be the night you <em> don’t </em> get to take her home?”  </p><p>For once, Jaime doesn’t have a biting retort to hit his friends with. He knows his brother’s right, that he’s lost his chance, that tonight’s going to be the longest he’s ever endured. “I—” He looks at the time—it’s about an hour to midnight and he doesn’t want to live through the ordeal of watching the woman of his dreams kiss another man to bring in the new year. “I’m going home.”</p><p>Tyrion climbs off his chair. “Jaime, aren’t you going to stay back till—”</p><p>“Nah, it’s too late,” he mumbles, his chest weighing him down as if he’s swallowed a huge stone. “Look at them—” his heart can’t stand it, though “—she loves him and he—” with a gulpful of air, he finally decides to accept the inevitable. “If she’s this happy with him maybe he’s the one for her.”   </p><p>Instead of going home, however, he heads off to the roof to drown his disappointment in a date with the moon. But it, too, seems to be pointing fingers at him, blaming him for his fate.</p><p><em> Yes, it was my fault, </em>he sullenly agrees, but there’s nothing much to be done now except standing out here in the open until fatigue finally gets the better of him.</p><p>Time trickles by, and Jaime finds himself glancing down at his watch, trying not to think about what this fresh year might bring in for the couple—a passionate kiss, for sure, and as their friends were speculating, maybe they’d decide to cross the final bridge, to consummate what’s been brewing between them for ages. The idea far more disturbing than he’s fathomed it would be, he stares away into nothing, loses himself in the dark void below, chiding himself for not rising up to it when it mattered.</p><p>If only he’d put his own heart above his raging need to put down Renly... </p><p>If only he’d pushed aside his inhibitions and surrendered to his feelings... </p><p>If only he’d told the wench in plainer words—</p><p>“They told me you had gone home.”</p><p>He grips the railing, goes all still for a moment. His ears want him to believe she’s here, but he holds back his thudding heart, lest he might be mistaken, then slowly turns around.</p><p>“What brings you here—” she gives the full moon a glance “—to this solitude when you ought to be in the midst of friends to bring in the new year?”</p><p>“Hiding away from the world to seek a bit of assistance from the moon, hoping it might help me right my wrongs and make up for the time I’ve lost,” he laments, pouring his heart out now that he can no longer hold it in. “What brings <em> you </em> here, though?” He takes in the way she blinks, the gentle flush that’s creeping up her neck as she approaches him. “You’re supposed to be bringing in the new year with the man you—”</p><p>“<em>You </em> get to take me home, don’t you?” she says, hasty and breathless. “Isn’t that how it always works between us, Jaime?”</p><p>“But—” His breath is caught up in his throat. While he can see what she’s heading for, he can’t help the little bit of confusion still hovering around in his head. “You and Renly—”</p><p>“I quit it with him,” she confesses, blinking harder than usual. “I—I realised I can’t keep trying to convince myself that he’s the one, that I—”</p><p>“That you—what?”   </p><p>A little beep on his wrist tells him the moment has come, that the time for dilly-dallying is gone, that now is when he needs to buck up and take the plunge.</p><p>And before his watch ticks away from 00:00, before the spell is broken, he swoops in to heed his heart.</p><p>When his lips welcome the sensation of hers, his mind goes blank. When he lets go of all else but the woman in his arms and the beautiful moon up there giving them its blessings, when her kiss leaves him feeling like the luckiest man in the world, Jaime knows this year’s going to be the best he’s stepped into.    </p><p>“Happy New Year, Jaime,” she whispers.</p><p>“Happy New Year to you too. And I’m sorry I failed to act sooner.” He pulls her closer. “I was an idiot not to listen to Tyrion and the others. More than that—” he tenderly caresses her lips with his “—I refused to listen to my feelings, to wake up to what you mean to me.”</p><p>“As the wise would put it—” she gently ruffles her fingers through his hair “—better late than never.”</p><p>“Brienne—” <em> I love you, </em>he wants to shout, and so much more, he means to say, to announce it to everyone within earshot, but lust and longing and all that’s burning within him take over, and unable to keep his hands off her, he leans up for another, more urgent kiss. </p><p>She kisses him back with the same desperation, deeply, hungrily, and when they let go, he can feel her furiously hammering heart pounding against his own. “Take me home, Jaime,” she says, her voice hoarse and needy. </p><p>And as always, he does, only this time, they walk away hand in hand. </p><p>This time, the night’s going to unfold very differently.</p><p> </p>
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